Prog & Progeny

Mark joins Tallulah from backstage in Bonn as Marillion's German tour begins with the live debut of "Ribbons and Lace." The book's final chapter covers the story behind "Gaza," the Frankfurt cement mixer accident, sudden hearing loss, marathon mishaps, a famous F1 fan, and a Nick Cave encounter.

A little pre-tour update...

Mark and Tallulah are joined by David Stopps, the promoter behind Friars Aylesbury, which he founded in 1969 and has run for 56 years. David recalls the club's earliest nights — including King Crimson and Genesis — managing Marillion for 5 short weeks, managing Howard Jones, and the Kickstarter behind Aylesbury's David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue. Plus Marillion's hometown return on 21 September.

Links:

How to make a Living from Music - David Stopps

David Bowie "Earthly Messenger" statue, Aylesbury

Friars Aylesbury

Stagehand (the road-crew charity David fundraised for during Covid)

In episode 35 we discussed the making of the Marathon album and our first attempts at writing together. These early efforts never came to anything, but for your amusement here's the music I sent to Guy to inspire him to write some lyrics. You might recognise the opening bars as I used them for the intro of the song 2051.

It came out of a couple of days of jamming at the Racket Club in 2012 with Steve Lawson (bass) and Roy Dodds (drums). You can find out more about Steve's work here and Roy's here.

Mike Hunter recorded and edited these jams into something more coherent — much as he does with the Marillion jams when we're writing — though it's still far from what you'd call a finished song. Adding the number station recordings was Mike's idea, and I think it gives the piece an intriguing atmosphere. I hope you enjoy it.

Mark

Mark and Tallulah are joined by Guy Vickers — barrister by day, musician and lyricist by night — the man behind the lyrics on Mark Kelly's Marathon and the legal brain behind Marillion's battle with EMI.

• 00:25 — Introducing Guy: weekend warrior, full-time barrister

• 03:13 — How Pete's dinner introduction kicked off the EMI streaming dispute

• 06:03 — The dissolved companies crisis: six months to save the pre-'96 royalties

• 10:05 — Pitching the box sets to EMI, and Fish's pub reunion proposal

• 13:27 — Marathon begins: number stations, spies and lyrics as relationship code

• 19:30 — The Anthropocene concept and what makes a human human

• 21:02 — Writing Amelia and 2051: Earhart, Kubrick, Clarke and Stephen Hawking

• 23:00 — Finding Ollie and hearing Amelia sung for the first time in New Orleans

• 29:15 — Why "Marathon"? The Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow logic

• 34:07 — The lost song about plagiarism (and Led Zeppelin's borrowed blues)

• 39:00 — Why Amelia crashed: Morse code, blind spots and unknown unknowns

• 43:47 — Wingsuits, risk and how you'd want to go out

This week we dive into Mark's years on the FAC and PPL boards, fighting for artists' rights while Marillion were being short-changed by their old EMI deal. The lawsuit that followed and the after-the-event insurance gambit, the sleepless night when EMI claimed Marillion had no legal standing because Marillion Limited had been dissolved! Plus the Portugal writing session that ended in a tactless row with H over a lyric, and the six-month silence that followed.

This week Mark calls in from Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios — with a quick video tour and the story of meeting Peter Gabriel for the first time.

Then into deputising for Adam Wakeman in Travis (with "drink beer" written across half the setlist) and a candid post-mortem on Somewhere Else — the dropped pre-order, the EP that never was, Mike Hunter's confidence taking a hit, and which songs hold up (and which really don't). Plus "Almost a Midwife Mark", and the tweet that got Mark to delete Twitter, tour meet-ups, and a Marillion quiz coming for Patreon members.

This week we answer your questions. If you have a question for inclusion on a future episode ask it on our Patreon "Questions questions" chat.

This week we speak with manager Lucy Jordache about her 30-plus-year journey, from a teenage Marillion fan to EMI catalogue manager, band manager, and Ian Mosley’s wife. Along the way, she discusses taking a pay cut to get into the music industry, a rocky first meeting with Fish, and how she and Ian got together. Plus, a frank conversation about what the future might hold for Marillion

This time we discuss how Marillion took a leap nobody else had dared, and accidentally changed the music industry. Lucy Jordache’s evolving role, and why the band chose not to capitalise on their invention. How sharing everything brought Marillion closer together. Mixing stress and why risk has always been Mark’s default setting. Also: Noel Gallagher delivers a deadpan insult, Mark bets on tripe, and Tallulah arrives with twelve names.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​